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By R. V. Ramani

In this paper, the application of the concepts of reliability engineering to the evaluation of longwall system performance is illustrated with data from an operating longwall face. A number of cases are analyzed to highlight the impacts of longwall equipment, geological conditions and outby haulage on systems reliability and availability.

Jan 1, 1988

By R. R. Rollins

Field data combined with theoretical derivations were used to design a surface mining operation using explosive casting. Calculated casting results varied from 44% to 65% depending on bench height. The field tests were performed at an Eastern, contour, coal stripping operation. Results from five experimental casting shots, using a shovel and trucks, are summarized and compared to conventional mining methods. The overburden material removed by casting ranged from 35% to 65%, with an average of 50%. Fragmentation was improved, and it was demonstrated that this procedure is economically attractive, with a resultant cost savings of $0.59/m3 or $5.93/t of clean coal.

Jan 1, 1988

The Witwatersrand reefs provide excellent examples of chemical and structural control on gold distribution. All mined gold appears to coma from a carbon -gold association and/or Fe-S-Au association, and also from immediately above or below unconformity surfaces. A total raliance on the current syngenetic model for Witwatersrand gold does not appear to be justified from the accumulated data and may be responsible for missed opportunities during exploration: consideration of other models is suggested especially where they better fit the data. The stratabound natura of Witwatersrand gold 1& critical to mining, but is emphasized in syngenetic models to the virtual exclusion of many other important observations. By analogy with other deposit types, stratabound character is probably a poor guide to genesis.

Jan 1, 1988

By G. S. Dobby, N. J. Contini, S. W. Wilson

Scale-up and simulation of flotation columns requires construction of mathematical models which employ, as a minimum, rate constants for quantifying particle recovery in the collection zone as well as split factors for quantifying froth zone performance. To date, measurement of these rate parameters has proven to be difficult, due to the interdependent nature of the collection and froth zones. This paper describes a technique for making these measurements. The method requires recovery data from two modes of operation: countercurrent and cocurrent. In cocurrent flow slurry is fed at the bottom of the column and tailings are withdrawn a short distance below the froth interface. Countercurrent mode is conventional operation. The critical difference is that particles which are dropped out of the froth in cocurrent mode are immediately lost to tailings, while in countercurrent mode the particles are subjected to recollection. Fitting of the measured recoveries to the equations that describe flotation in the two modes yields rate constant or recovery values for both the collection and the froth zones.

Jan 1, 1988

By G. R. Tostengard

Gold plant performance during the start-up period, which extends until capacity production is sustained, has a major impact on the internal rate of return and the net present value of gold projects regardless of mining and processing configurations. The start-up period experiences substandard production, extra expenses, and sometimes reduced recovery. This results in lost profits, a portion of which are recouped at the end of the life of the mine. Poor start-up performance can put projects into financial jeopardy. The gold mining industry regularly experiences start-ups ranging from good to poor. Problem areas, which affect start-up performance, include shortcomings in ore reserve sampling and testing, equipment design and installation, untrained plant operators, inability to cope with problems which arise, and organization of the maintenance program. An investment, equal to 0.5% to 1.0% of plant capital cost, in programs to prepare for start-up, in advance, is recommended. Investment in such a program will make a good start-up possible. Without it the best result which can normally be expected is a fair start-up. Developers of new gold mines are urged to compare the cost of this investment with the anticipated increase in project net present value. Funds for this investment should be included in feasibility studies.

Jan 1, 1988

By R. P. Upadhyay

The Deserado Mine, located in northwest Colorado, is an underground coal mine designed to produce 1.225 million tons (1.35 million short tons) of clean coal per year for the Bonanza Plant located in northeastern Utah. Coal is transported to the power plant via a 61 kilometer (38 mile) captive railroad. Most of the surface facilities and the stationary underground equipment is controlled and continuously monitored by the computers located at the surface control room. In addition to system control, the computer also continuously monitors vital environmental conditions using sensors located at various critical locations underground. The system's advantages are increased mine productivity and safety.

Jan 1, 1988

By D. A. Wheeler

Invented by Pierre Boutin in the early 1960s the column was a complete break from the conventional flotation cell. 1. When used as a rougher-scavenger, the column is excellent. 2. When used as a cleaner, the results can be spectacular. The very first column tests were carried out using it as a rougher-scavenger in a reverse float where silica was floated from iron. It produced a concentrate underflow as good or better than that produced from roughing and scavenging stages in cells, The froth tailing overflow was better than that produced by several stages of cell cleaning. Column scaleup progressed rapidly from the two inch diameter unit to a semi automated 12 inch diameter column on material from the Iron Ore Company of Canada. A change in operating philosophy within IOCC brought all flotation development, column or conventional, to a halt. At that time, IOCC had an exclusive right to the use of the column in Canada in the field of iron ore. We moved into the field of sulphides. A Canadian copper producer sent ore for testing and the results led to their purchase of the first commercial size of column - a 36 inch diameter machine. It was a mechanical disaster. It took several years to raise sufficient funds to return to that mill with our basic 18 inch square unit. It was to be tested and modified in order to learn how to properly design a large column. Originally used as a rougher- scavenger, it had to produce tails equal to the final tailings from this well run plant. It did, and did so while producing a rougher-scavenger concentrate almost equal to the plant final concentrate. It was finally used as a cleaner and produced concentrate 5% higher in copper than the plant final concentrate with equal cleaner tails. This phase of the column development was carried out under very difficult circumstances. The mill superintendent had realized that if he took the froth removal system from our original mechanical disaster and applied it to a conditioner while injecting air, he would have a flotation cell. He had personally applied for patents on this Maxwell Cell. Our development work was done in his mill and as our results became better and better, our difficulties became worse and worse. We finally had to terminate this work. The 18 inch column installed at Mines Gaspé 14 years later was identical to the one removed from Opemiska. The 18 inch column was tried on various ores over the following years and always produced excellent results. However, it was not really a production size unit. We had always aimed for the 72 inch column (72" x 72" x 44' 9"). Prior to this huge machine, we needed the intermediate 36 inch column. The failure of the original 36 inch diameter unit at Opemiska had raised the possibility of short circuiting inside the column as the cross section increased. The first 36 inch square unit was tested in parallel with the proven 18 inch column. If the underflow of the 36 incher was not as good as that of the 18 incher, short circuiting was a possibility in the larger unit. It had been designed for insertion of drop in partitions, four feed points had been provided and the 36 inch column would have become a modular unit of four 18 inch columns. Testing showed the underflows of both columns to be identical. There was no short circuiting in the 36 inch column. Once we had the 36 incher, we had no fear of the 72 inch column. It is permanently partitioned into four 36 inch columns but uses only one set of instrumentation. All the component parts of the 72 inch column come from the 36 inch unit. In spite of our results, the mining community did not believe the column could work. Finally, in 1980, Mines Gasp6 ordered an 18 and 36 inch column for their byproduct molybdenum

Jan 1, 1988

By R. J. Sweigard, R. V. Ramani

Estimated costs and revenues can be used in evaluating postmining land use alternatives. However, postmining land use decisions have to be made in an environment complicated by several additional factors. These factors, including cultural, natural, and managerial issues, are not as easily quantified as costs and revenues but may be more important determinants. There fore, some approach is needed to attach relative weight to the various factors. The concept of fuzzy sets assembled into a structured hierarchy facilitates analysis of the relative value of individual factors and their impact on each alternative under consideration. In this paper, a method is presented that employs fuzzy set analysis to evaluate postmining land use plans on the basis of these nonquantitative factors.

Jan 1, 1988

By L. P. Meade

The particular impact of imported industrial minerals varies within the Industry and is dependent upon many diverse factors. In a similar way, the impact on individuals has been varied and the degree of impact will depend partially on the individual's ability to handle change. Just as many corporations are adjusting their marketing strategy and production methods to compensate for imported mineral products; individual managers, mining engineers and geologists are making adjustments to their own personal job marketing techniques and on-the-job operating procedures. Modifying the degree of impact for both industry and individuals depends upon the ability to adapt.

Jan 1, 1988

By H. P. van Ormer

The objective of this paper and the developed personal computer program is not to identify or try to identify the actual total drilling cost in any Rotary Drilled Blast Bole Program. The ideas put forth here and in the computer program developed are a very accurate way to measure what is often very hard to identify and interpret -The actual direct operating cost of various drilling package combinations including comparing with available blast hole sizes and patterns

Jan 1, 1988

By R. W. Smith, Z. Sadowski

INTRODUCTION Problems encountered in barite flotation from various waste materials such as spent drilling muds are likely to be closely connected with the effect of contaminant metal ions and other chemicals on the flotation. Investigations on the recovery of barite from tailings ponds and mining wastes (Sullivan and Lamot, 1981) have shown that such barite materials can contain large quantities of carbonate and silicate minerals (including clay minerals). Also iron oxide slimes can be present. From these substances, cations such as Ca2+, Mg2+, Fe2+, and A13+ can potentially dissolve and be present in the aqueous phase accompanying the various minerals. These ions and their hydrolysis products can have a substantial effect on any subsequent flotation scheme. The present study investigates the effect of the noted ions on both the stability and electrokinetic behavior of barite suspensions. Some adsorption (abstraction) experiments were also performed. Experimental materials and methods The barite used was a high-purity, naturally occur¬ring mineral sample (Kings Creek, SC). The material was ground in a porcelain mill and a fine fraction (mean particle size 11.49 µm) separated out by air elutriation. The mean size was determined by an aqueous sedimentation method using a CAHN electro-balance. In the method, an 0.6-g sample of the barite was dispersed in 450 cm3 of pH 7 water containing 0.01 g of sodium tripolyphosphate. The mean particle size was denoted X0. The stability of the barite suspensions was determined by a comparison of the mean size of the investigated barite suspension aggregations with the mean size of barite powder determined in the presence of sodium tripolyphosphate. The mean sizes (X) of the barite aggregations were determined using the same amount of water and barite sample as in the measurements of dispersed barite particle size but without the presence of polyphosphate. The ratio X/Xo is thus a measure of the stability of a suspension (the greater the ratio, the less stable the suspension). The adsorption (abstraction) experiments were carried out in polyethylene bottles containing 1 g of barite powder in 200 mL of solution. The solids were added to a solution containing a known concentration of metal chloride salts (AlCl3, FeCl2, MgCl2, and CaCl2) . The pH was controlled by both HCl and NaOH addition. The suspensions were agitated in a shaker for three hours. The final ion concentrations in solution were determined by atomic absorption analysis. The electrokinetic measurements were made using a Komline-Sanderson Zeta Reader in a conventional manner. All experiments were carried out in the presence of 1.0x10-3 k.mol/m3 NaClO4. Experimental results Figure 1 shows the zeta potential of barite particles as a function of pH in the presence of iron(II). The

Jan 1, 1988

By S. K. Kawatra, S. Bagley, T. C. Eisele

To meet federal air pollution guidelines, it is necessary to remove a considerable quantity of sulfur from many North American coals. This may be accomplished by oxidizing the sulfur to water soluble forms, followed by washing the coal. Selective oxidation of the various sulfur forms can be accomplished through the use of a variety of types of bacteria. In this paper, the various bacteria and their requirements are described, and processes using bacteria to remove coal sulfur are discussed.

Jan 1, 1988

By J. R. Allen

Environmental laws and regulations have proliferated over the last two decades. 1/ Within the last year, Congress has dramatically expanded the scope of the Superfund program 2/ and has enacted significant new amendments to the Clean Water Act.3/ In addition, EPA has shown no signs of slackening the pace at which it promulgates new regulations to implement statutory programs. The agency projects that over the next few years it will issue approximately 275 new regulations under the statutes it implements. 4/

Jan 1, 1988

By José Salim, T. V. Subrahmanyan

The occurence of primary stratiform and vein gold deposits in the Precambrian rocks of Northeastern Brazil is discussed. The stratiform deposits are related to clastic sediments (quartzites and conglomerates). The veins are associated with quartz and sulfides and are structurally controlled by shear zones. The gold was recovered for a long time by small miners. Developmental programmes for large scale mining are now envisaged. The recovery problems and gold economics are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1988

By William E. Cobb

15.1 INTRODUCTION The mine development process, as discussed in Chapter 2, is a series of data gathering and analysis steps. As the mine development process proceeds, information about the geology, mineability, and metallurgy of a particular deposit is continually generated, along with environmental information regarding project permitting status. As data are obtained, checkpoint evaluations are typically conducted to determine the economic viability of the particular deposit. Although the project evaluation process was discussed at length in Chapter 2, a brief review of the process is presented here to "set the stage" for the discussion on economic analysis of heap leach projects. Figure 15.1 (MacKenzie, 1980) presents an overview of the sequential process of mine development. Once the deposit is discovered or acquired, an initial delineation program can be undertaken to expand the project's geologic, mining, and metallurgical data base. At the end of this initial program, the direction of the project is evaluated. The company can either abandon the project, postpone it, develop and mine it, or gather additional data in hopes of improving the project's economic viability. If the company continues gathering data, then another decision point and evaluation will be required. This process may continue until the company either decides to postpone the project or develop and mine it. A project may be postponed indefinitely, typically in hopes of improved metals prices. Certain holding costs, such as land or royalty payments, may be associated with postponement. In general, once a company goes through two evaluations, the project is less likely to be abandoned. For this discussion, it is assumed that the company will undertake initial, second, and third delineation programs to gather sufficient geologic, mining, metallurgical , and environmental data to justify a positive production decision from the second or third economic evaluation. The objectives of the first delineation program will be to confirm and expand upon the available information about the deposit. During the second delineation program, development funds should be directed toward identifying the critical project items (i .e., ore reserves, mineralogy, mineable grade, metallurgical recovery, etc.) that must be resolved before making the production decision. This second economic evaluation can be used to determine which metallurgical concept will be applied to the project: heap leach or a traditional agitation-type leach plant. If the proper work has solved key project concerns in the second program, a production decision may be made from that evaluation.

Jan 1, 1988

By C. E. Jordan

The Bureau of Mines conducted research to determine the effect of fine bubbles on the flotation of fine-sized particles (minus 20-um size). Turbulent flow collision models for fine particles and fine bubbles were reviewed. Velocity distributions within the flotation cell along with measured bubble and particle size distributions were considered in the models to predict the flotation response. The models were corroborated with laboratory fine-bubble flotation tests to verify the expected increase in flotation efficiency.

Jan 1, 1988

Floc properties such as density, size, size distribution, porosity and shear strength govern the effectiveness of flocculation as a process for solid-liquid separation. Floc characteristics desired for removal of suspended solids by sedimentation or filtration, for example, are known to be different. In this study, an attempt has been made to evaluate floc density using a simplified procedure and determine the effects of various physical and chemical factors on the density of floes obtained. A brief discussion of techniques employed to measure the shear strength of flocs and the effect of various parameters on the floc strength is also presented.

Jan 1, 1988

By N. S. Tanious

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulation 10 CFR 60 requires that the ventilation system for the geologic repository be designed to: (1) control the transport of radioactive particulates and gases, (2) assure continued function during normal operations and under accident conditions, and (3) separate the ventilation of excavation and emplacement areas. The ventilation system design should take into account thermal loading; maintenance of the retrieval option and-the separation of the development and emplacement ventilation circuits. An analysis was performed by NRC's contractor, Engineers International on the ventilation system design described in the Department of Energy's conceptual design for Nevada. The ventilation analysis is of a preliminary nature. The conclusions presented in this paper reflect the views of the authors and may not represent the views of the NRC. In this analysis, available Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigation (NNWSI) ventilation design information was reviewed and a ventilation network analysis was performed.

Jan 1, 1988

By W. de Bruijn

Differential reduction and expansion or shrinkage of hematite under the influence of intimately associated foreign oxides may be a source of stress formation and sinter degradation during blast furnace reduction. To study specific effects, synthetically pre-pared hematite powder evenly doped with 1% by weight of several elements present as oxides, was pressed into tablets and sintered at high temperature prior to reduction. Continuous thermo-gravimetric and dilatometric analyses were per-formed on the sintered tablets as these were being subjected to reduction under simulated blast furnace time/temperature/gas composition conditions up to 1183 K. These findings were coupled with observations on the microstructure of tablets removed from various stages of the reduction process.

Jan 1, 1988

By E. M. Frizzell

This paper addresses the use of the microcomputer programs BACKONE and BACKWEDG for an estimation of rock mass strength characteristics by back analysis of plane and wedge failures. The artificial support requirements are also determined by the programs PLANE2, BOLTPAT, and BOLTWEDG in terms of rock anchor installation angles, tensions, and installation patterns. These programs have been combined into a package called BACKPACK, which can be applied in open pit mines where some failures have already occurred.

Jan 1, 1988